Revolution Square, Bucharest

Revolution Square ( _ro. Piaţa Revoluţiei) is a square in central Bucharest, on Calea Victoriei. Known as "Piaţa Palatului" (Palace Square) until 1989, it was later renamed after the 1989 Romanian Revolution.

The former Royal Palace (now the National Museum of Art of Romania), the Athenaeum, the Athénée Palace Hotel, the University of Bucharest Library and the Memorial of Rebirth are located here. The square also houses the building of the former Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party (from where Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife fled by helicopter on December 22, 1989). In 1990, the building became the seat of the Senate and since 2006 it houses the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform. [ro icon [http://www.jurnalul.ro/articol_49046/casa_noua___blaga_se_muta_in_fostul_cc_al_pcr.html "Casă nouă - Blaga se mută în fostul CC al PCR" ("New HQ: Blaga Moves to the Building of the Former Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party")] , in Jurnalul Naţional, March 24, 2006]

Prior to 1948, an equestrian statue of Carol I of Romania stood there. Created in 1930 by the Croatian and American sculptor Ivan Meštrović, the statue was destroyed in 1948 by the Communists, who never paid damages to the sculptor. In 2005, the Romanian Minister of Culture decided to recreate the destroyed statue from a model that was kept by Meštrović's family. In 2007, the Bucharest City Hall assigned the project to the sculptor Florin Codre, who is going to design an original statue of Carol inspired by Meštrović's model (most consider it a plagiarism) . [ro icon [http://www.gandul.info/articol_35130/statuie_ecvestra_a_lui_carol_i___amplasata_in_piata_revolutiei.html "Statuia ecvestră a lui Carol I, amplasată în Piaţa Revoluţiei" ("Carol's Equestrian Statue, To Be Located in the Revolution Square")] , in Gândul, March 28, 2007]

In August 1968 and December 1989, the square was the site of a two mass meetings which represented the apogee and the nadir of Ceauşescu's regime. [ro icon [http://www.jurnalul.ro/articol_42817/regimul_ceausescu___de_la_mitingul_din_1968_la_cel_din_1989.html "Regimul Ceauşescu - de la mitingul din 1968 la cel din 1989"] , "Ceauşescu Regime: From the 1968 to the 1989 Mass Meeting", in Jurnalul Naţional, December 21, 2005] The 1968 moment marked the highest point in Ceauşescu's popularity, when he openly condemned the invasion of Czechoslovakia and started pursuing a policy of independence from Kremlin. The 1989 meeting was meant to emulate the 1968 assembly and presented by the official media as a "spontaneous movement of support for Ceauşescu", erupting in the popular revolt which led to the end of the regime ("see Romanian Revolution of 1989#Bucharest").

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References

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